September 26, 2010
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
I used to go first to the Sporting Green section of the morning paper to see how my teams were doing. Surprisingly, I am increasingly finding myself going to the Business section first to see if the stock market is up or down. When I turned 60, I became interested in how my retirement investments were doing; we know it’s hasn’t been doing too well these days. I forget sometimes what Paul wrote to his young disciple, Timothy, “we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it.”
Last weekend at the Sojourners retreat, we focused on “doing good deeds” and gravitated to the whole topic of giving and generosity. How do people give today and what may motivate them to give. We came up with many ideas and the reasons that motivated each of us to give in the past. This was a profoundly challenging topic that I sensed caught many of us by surprise. We went to the retreat thinking that it would be fun and games, casual times for rich conversations and ended up with sleepless nights.
There was a pastor who met a woman in a grocery store one day whom he has not seen in a long time. She had suddenly stopped attending church and he never learned exactly why. After the two exchanged some pleasantries, the pastor said, “We miss you. Is there anything that our church can do for you?”
The woman replied, “Yes, there is. You could stop asking for money all the time.”
We are gearing up in this Fall season of asking you for money. The 2011 Proposed Budget developed by the Finance Committee was posted last Sunday for your review so that next Sunday at our Membership Meeting, you’ll have the opportunity to approve the budget for our 2010 Canvass. Last Thursday, Wes Chan and Wallace Chu met to develop the plan for this year’s canvass. I recognize that some people grow weary of being asked to give.
Love God
In our passage for this morning, Paul challenges us to decide whether we will serve God or pursue what is self-serving or, even worse, what serves falsehood and evil. At the Sojourners retreat, we talked about doing good deeds for others and biblically as “love your neighbor as yourself.” This as we know is the second of the two great summary commandments Jesus spoke.
The first of them is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). For Christians, giving out of what we have has as much to do with the first great commandment as with the second one.
To say it another way, we should give not only to do good for others but also because it’s necessary for our own spiritual well-being. It’s part of the way we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.
Paul addresses the negative impact money can have on our souls. In our reading, Paul speaks about the gain that comes to us “in godliness combined with contentment” and goes on to mention the basics—food and clothing—as sufficient. But then he warns about the dangers that the desire to be rich can bring, stating, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains” (6:10).
Paul calls Timothy a “man of God” which is an ancient name for a prophet. Paul tells him to “shun all this.” In other words, some threats to our spiritual health—including the love of money—are so subtle and so powerful that the best way to deal with them is to stay away from them.
Think of the church as schooling in desire, learning how to want the right things in the right way and in the right proportions. For the woman who stopped coming to church because the church is always asking her to give, she can see that as an invitation to learn to want the right things in the right way and in the right proportions. Who else in the world would tell us that when we have food and clothing, we would be content with these?
At church we are taught to love God. Loving God or having this spirit of godliness is to gain the grateful response to the blessings of God’s providence. Godliness is a life that really is life because it’s our humble response to the good news of Christ’s salvation such that our lives are profoundly grateful. No matter what we have, we genuinely feel that enough is too much already. When we direct our gratitude to God, we are content and eternally thankful. We put our trust in God’s gracious purposes.
Meister Eckhart said that if the only prayer you ever pray is “thank you,” then you have prayed enough.
Obviously, we live in a world that runs on money. We cannot have a decent existence without money, and Paul is well aware of this. But he also recognizes that the lure of money and the acquisition of possessions it makes possible are so dangerous to our souls that we have to defang them. And one of the best ways to do that is by opening our hands and giving some of it away.
Consumerism
I realize that I am a consumer of a retirement plan. I make a monthly payment with the expectation that when that day comes to collect, I will receive the benefits of a pension for the rest of my life.
Many people think about the church as just another way to get our needs met. Church is where I get one-stop shopping for the satisfaction of all my spiritual longings and urges. A capitalist economy tends to commodify everything, even Jesus.
In previous generations, people found their identity in what they produced. We now find our identity in what we consume. Christians have not escaped the pervasive consumerism that defines religious identities, traditions, and faith practices. We give when we see that our needs can be met. When you were a youth, did you first see how much of the church budget was allocated for youth ministry before you made a pledge? As a senior citizen, do you first examine the budget to see how much money is proposed for seniors ministry before you make a pledge?
The church is not about “meeting my needs;” the church is about judging my alleged “need,” about giving me needs that I would not have had if I had not met Jesus.
We live in a society that has long since move beyond the satisfaction of basic human needs such as food and clothing to the gratification of all our wants and desires, and the expectation that it is my God-given right to have those wants satisfied.
You come to church as schooling in desire, learning how to want the right thing in the right way and in the right proportions in order to have a life that really is a life worth living. Paul writes, “shun all this” and “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness’ (v. 11). Paul says, You should shun—flee to escape and you should pursue—chase to catch. Move urgently away from the evil of money and consumerism and move toward godliness to serve God’s purposes.
Not that human wealth has nothing to offer at all. When shared with a spirit of generosity that is keeping with God’s purpose, wealth can and does further much good in this life. Indeed, a spirit of generosity is fully expected of “those who in the present age are rich” (v. 7), indicating that the issue is not wealth per se, but how we approach it.
Life that really is life
As American Christians, Paul is addressing us “who in the present age are rich.” He tells us not to allow our wealth to make us “haughty (or being arrogant), or to set our hopes on the uncertainty of riches.” Rather, Paul says, we are to set our hope “on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” And if we didn’t get the point the first time, Paul says, “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”
Notice he doesn’t say we should be generous and ready to share because that’s good for others, though no doubt Paul would agree with that. No, he says we should be “rich in good works, generous, and ready to share” because by so doing we “take hold of the life that really is life.”
We should be generous because it’s one of the things that make us, the givers, spiritually healthy. Giving isn’t about the receiver or the gift but the giver. Giving is for the benefit of the giver. One doesn’t open one’s wallet to improve the world, although it’s nice when that happens; one does it to improve one’s self. We give because it is one concrete way that we can say that we are glad to be alive.
Giving is a way of taking the focus off the money we make and putting it back where it belongs—on the lives we lead, the families we raise, the communities that nurture us.
What might your life that really is life look like? For me, it would look like this. I will shun the dangers of the desire to be rich because the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and may lead me to wander away from my faith in Christ. Even with my retirement plan, I have chosen to live a simple life.
I will pursue and chase after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness with the confidence that when I am in God’s plan, whatever is sufficient for life such as food and clothing is more than enough. I will always put God first above everything else.
And as one who is a rich American Christian, I want to continue to do good, be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share. In every statistic, I am better off than 90 percent of the rest of the world. I have more than I really need.
For pastors, one of the most dreaded times in the church year is when we have to ask you for money. I fear this time because it is usually a trustworthy barometer for the spiritual health of the church. As Jesus said, where our money is, there our heart is also.
Your giving is not an evaluation of whether my or the other pastors’ performance in the past year are worthy of your support. You give because it’s a barometer of where your faith in God’s plan for your life is right now. Giving is about you and your relationship with Jesus Christ and how grateful you are because you are saved from sin by God’s sacrifice of Christ Jesus.
Because we live in such a consumer/commodity-driven society, we need the church as schooling in desire, learning how to want the right things in the right way and in the right proportions to live a life that really is life. That’s the reason why you are here today.
Generosity is one of the spiritual disciplines that we practice to avoid superficial faith. In fact, someone has said that when we present the offering plates at the altar after the collection has been taken, the gist of our offertory prayer should be: “No matter what else we say or do here this morning, O Lord, this tells you what we really think of you.”
So yes, the church is always asking for money. But it’s also asking you to pray, read the Bible, confess your sins, do good deeds, attend worship, shun the evil of desiring for money and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. All those things are good for our hearts, souls, and minds. They help us to go deeper into our faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Continue to come to church as schooling in desire, learning how to want the right things in the right way and in the right proportions because the world is not going to teach you this. It is for the good of the giver. And in the end, you would have lived a life that really is life.
Let us pray.
We give you thanks, Almighty God, for all the blessings that you have graciously showered upon us—our homes, our families, our nourishment, and our material blessings. We live our lives as debtors, indebted to you for all that we have.
Lord, give us the wisdom to see the true value of things we have, the judgment to see the worthlessness of so much that the world cherishes, the grace to let go of all those things that hinder us from the truly abundant life.
And then give us the grace to share what we have with those in need so that we might please you, might show our allegiance to your kingdom and our love of your way, and in the end, live a life that really is life. Amen.